Homemade Hardware

The process of taking my breadboard circuit to SMB part circuit was such a struggle omg. Here is the board I ended up with, which looks really nice, but unfortunately does not work. Code appears to upload through the Arduino IDE, but there is some issue with the board stuck in a reset loop.

Even though my circuit doesn’t work, the code does work!!! It works 100% on my breadboard circuit and the Feather Huzzah. Here a screenshot of the main website that my circuit was supposed to be serving. I was able to control a whole strip of neopixels during my testing.

For my final project, I am planning on making a small grid of LEDs that can be controlled by users from a website that is accessible from anywhere. Users will not be able to see the LED grid unless they are physically present, but they can still make changes. Hopefully, people will collectively create images or simply play around. This is kind of like a small physical version of Reddit Place. My current code allows you to choose more colors for the LEDs, but the demo shown in the gif only has red and blue. Keep reading for my process.

I made a light that reacted to the external environment. I decided to use a photo-resistor and a temperature sensor to determine the color and brightness of the lights. I was inspired by Magritte’s painting “The Banquet” that I saw in Chicago last week.

I added some mounting points to mount material that will diffuse the light. There’s also a larger hole so this light can hang on a wall. I haven’t made the enclosure yet, but I’ll update the post when I do. I’m waiting for the snow storm to stop before I try to go to Canal Plastics… Keep reading for exciting gifs, troubleshooting, Eagle screenshots, and more!

Using Eagle, I took my breadboard circuit into a PCB design! I modified the circuit schematic we worked on together in class to work for my chosen sensor, which is the toggle switch. It has three pinouts: ground, signal, and power. It will connect to the inputs where it says "JP2" on the schematic.

From there, I drew the copper connections on the PCB in the board layout below. I avoided doing any air-wires. I'm a little bit worried about if there is enough space between the copper lines, but hopefully it will be fine!

For my breadboard ATtiny85 circuit, I've decided to control my LED using a toggle switch. On one setting the LED will blink. When toggled to the other setting, the LED will fade up and down. The video above shows it working. I followed the demo we did in class to program the ATtiny85 through the Arduino.